As we are all aware (I hope), the UKIP were quite successful in the European Elections last week, and, as I disagree wholeheartedly with what they stand for, I’ve been reading furiously about what could have caused people to vote for them. One factor that I’ve seen mentioned a number of times is the way in which Mr Farage presents himself as ‘anti-establishment’.
Of course, he’s not ‘anti-establishment’, he’s a privileged former city worker with a bit of a racist streak (when he’s tired), which, to me, screams establishment.
Regardless of this fact, I would hazard a guess that this is something that captures voters and drags them to Farage, and, to give him some credit, he’s good at presenting himself as something he’s not (or lying…).
We are all aware of the way politicians like to twist questions and answer in such a way as to mention everything their aides have told them to, and that’s annoying. If an interviewer asks a question, we want to know the answer to that question, not the one that it’s been manipulated and transformed into.
This is where Farage is a bit different. I don’t want to say he’s ‘straight talking’, he obviously knows what he’s doing (most of the time), but it does seem that somewhere in the “diabolical plan to be perceived as ‘anti-establishment’ and chuck all the foreigners out” he’s written: ‘appear as though I’m not a politician’.
Obviously, a good way to go about this is to do things politicians don’t, like go down the pub and drink a nice ale or seven and smoke, or to be more direct in the way he answers questions. Being the leader of a minor party (despite what he might say) allows him to flout the political rules somewhat, because if it leads to a slip up, there’s not a lot to be lost.
Again, to begrudgingly give him credit, he hasn’t slipped up much, he’s outlined what he thinks and some people agree, and he’s not really strayed from his message, so his loyal followers have done just that, followed him, ale in hand, sticking up for the good people of Britain (as long as they’re not from somewhere else).
In recent weeks however, when asked about the UKIP’s policies about anything whatsoever that isn’t immigration or leaving the EU, he’s reverted back to that old establishment ploy of twisting questions and answering them in a way that gets his desired message across. He’s conforming to the standards of those people he’s so actively trying to prove he’s not.
Whenever he or his party is asked about domestic problems, the first answer is to blame the foreigners, he has to get the message across that they’re to blame, he has no policies regarding domestic problems; the UKIP don’t have a manifesto. With the European election, this was a major issue, but I’d suggest it’s not going to be at the top of the public’s list of worries when the focus shifts to the general election, and Farage, if he wants to be taken seriously, will need answers to questions about the issues at the top of such a list that don’t just blame immigration. If he has a whole manifesto lurking behind him in the shadows, it seems unlikely to me that he’ll be able to keep up his ‘straight talking’ appearance without contradicting the party’s policies somewhere along the line.
I also don’t want to forget that he has slipped up already, in an interview when he was asked what the difference between living next door to Romanians or Germans was, he said ‘you know the difference’ and later blamed his comments on ‘tiredness’. It’s hard to imagine a career politician making such a mistake and revealing themselves as a racist when tired.
A combination of slip ups and increasing pressure could (and hopefully will) lead to his ‘anti-establishment’ image crumbling and people realising that he’s just one of the politicians after all, and the dreadful UKIP ‘blame anyone but those responsible’ bandwagon will be derailed.
Even if that happens, we might get the Tories in again, and they hate blaming those responsible too…